Twitter CEO says new tools to fight online abuses are almost here

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey says – on Twitter, of course – that the social network is “taking a completely new approach to abuse on Twitter.” No, not dishing it out, but rather trying to tamp down on the complaints about hate speech and harassment users say the network is too slow to respond to. Along with Jack’s tweet, Twitter VP of Engineering Ed Ho said, again on Twitter, that they are working on “long overdue fixes.”

One strategy the company is pursuing, according to Ho, is blocking banned users from establishing new accounts. Another is a “safe search” feature that blocks offensive content. And, Ho said more changes are on the way, soon. We’re looking forward to meeting the new sheriff in town.

Live Video Fail compilations coming soon

Live video from a mobile phone is the hot new thing in social media of course, and so far, one outlier has been YouTube. YouTube has had live video from a PC since 2011, but the ability to go live from a mobile phone has only been available recently to a small, select group of high-profile YouTubers, but will now expand to users with 10,000 or more subscribers. The rest of us less popular folks will get it “soon.”

When “soon” will be wasn’t detailed, but an interesting feature called “super chat” will roll out with it. Super Chat lets viewers pay – like five bucks – to have their comments float to the top of the comment stream and be highlighted in a bright color for up to five hours. Who in the world would pay for such a thing? Apparently, a lot of people.

YouTube star Clintus McGintus said he gave the as-yet unpublicized feature a go while shopping at a Target and said he reeled in 900 bucks – in 30 minutes. Of course, having half a million subscribers probably helps. Hit the link for more details on YouTube’s new live video and Super Chat features.

More interesting was the sheer volume of data being sponged up: The FTC said Vizio was capturing up to 100 billion data points per day from more than 10 million users. What were those data points? Apparently, information down to the pixel was sent in regards to what people were watching, streaming, their ISP information, IP address and so forth. They were also storing the data permanently as well as sending it along to advertisers.

Vizio initially claimed the data collection was accidental and anonymous, but that apparently didn’t fly with the FTC, who told Vizio to delete all those bits and not do it again. Question is: Is anyone else doing this type of thing? There’s a reason online companies seem to always know what you want to buy, and it’s not dumb luck. And a two million dollar fine to a company like Vizio is chump change, so we’ll see if this incident has any real impact on data collection.

The shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand were livestreamed to social media, and while stats show networks are improving at removing offending videos, as the system improves, so do the violators' workarounds.

Twitter has recently started testing a feature that lets you subscribe to a thread so that you’ll no longer need to like a comment or post to it yourself in order to receive notifications of new contributions.

Looking for a new television? In an oversaturated market, buying power is at an all-time high, but you'll need to cut through the rough to find a diamond. We're here to help with our picks for the best TVs of 2019.

AirPod rumors and the latest news about foldable phones highlight Wednesday's episode of Digital Trends Live. We also sat down with Calvin Iverson to talk about how to travel on a budget and how millennials are changing the travel industry.

From new Facebook Messenger features to 5Ge coming to select smartphones, we discussed the latest in tech news on this episode of Digital Trends Live. We also welcomed Chaz Tanase of GoNation and Dan Ferguson of Groove Jones to the show.

On Thursday's episode of Digital Trends Live, we discussed trending headlines like the latest news surrounding Amazon's new HQ plans to the Mars rover Opportunity. We also sat down with author and entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki to talk about his…

On episode 72 of Digital Trends Live, we discussed news including the discovery that Google's Nest Secure has a hidden microphone, and welcomed author Brian Solis to the show to talk about his latest book.

On this episode of Digital Trends Live, we sat down with John Hall of Calendar.com and Briscoe Rodgers of EzCater. We were also joined by DT's Caleb Denison to discuss how Apple is looking to revolutionize TV streaming.

On episode 77 of Digital Trends Live, hosts Greg Nibler and Luke Larsen explored the biggest news stories from the world of tech, including the new Star Wars attraction, Twitter's experimental moderation tools, and more.